Cornell v. Shain

Citations

• 2021 Ohio 2094

Syllabus

CONTEMPT — PURGE CONDITION — APPELLATE REVIEW — FINAL ORDER — R.C. 2505.02: The trial court's pretrial order requiring parties in a business divorce to pay over $260,000 to a receiver for safekeeping was a final, appealable order under R.C. 2505.02(B)(2), because receivership proceedings are \special\ and the order, which risked the probability of irreparable injury, affected the parties' substantial rights to the due process of law that attaches when the government takes the property of a party before judgment. When reviewing a contempt finding, an appellate court may not review the propriety of an underlying final order that the contemnor failed to timely appeal. The trial court's order compelling parties to pay specified funds to a receiver was clear and enforceable in contempt. The trial court did not abuse its discretion by finding parties in contempt for their admitted failure to comply with an order to pay over $260,000, thereby rejecting an \inability to pay\ defense, where the contemnors made no attempt to pay and their credibility on the defense was effectively impeached at trial. The trial court's purge order was unreasonable where it provided only ten days to the contemnors to pay over $260,000, set forth no explanation for the short deadline, and the evidence at the contempt hearing presented a strong likelihood of contemnors' need to borrow money or sell assets to comply with the purge condition.